Of All The Stars
by SarahSerendipidy-OliviaMaestro
Summary: On a very special day, the Doctor shows Nicole the universe, and they get to know each other. SOMETIME AFTER "HER HUNCHBACKED GUARDIAN", but without references.


**Doctor Who series 6.5 – Valentine's Day Special, oneshot**

**A/N **Dedicated to my best friend Olivia. Happy Valentine's Day! Hope ya like it

_Of all the stars, he shone the brightest_

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><p>Travelling with the Doctor. It was amazing. You never knew what to expect - whether it was a relaxing tour or a none-stop running experience. Mostly the latter occurred though. But it was still fun. The running. Made you fit as well! Oh, and the things you saw! You'd never dream of it. Well, maybe you would, but it defiantly wouldn't be as brilliant as the real deal. It could be beautiful, it could be dramatic, it could even be humoristic or a bland of all three.<br>Then there was the Doctor himself. He was the greatest mystery of all. He knew so much, and sometimes you'd never be able to catch up with what he _just_ said. He would either sound very clever or like a complete manic. Sometimes both. And while you knew nothing about him, maybe a bit about his personality, he would know so much about you. But that was okay.  
>Because it was worth it.<br>Travelling with him was definitely worth it.

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><p>"Whattup Doc?" Nicole greeted as she arrived in the kitchen. She looked around. It was a very big kitchen. It probably had everything. In the middle of the room there was a small island with barstools around it and by the walls there were cupboards which were filled with… eh… Nicole didn't actually know that. Some sort of space-beans and chips.<br>The Doctor turned to flash a smile at Nicole.

"I'm making breakfast!" he said proudly. Nicole peeked over his shoulder. She couldn't quite place what it was that was on his pan-thingy, but damn it smelt good!

"Oh, we're having breakfast now? I thought the last thing we had was lunch," she said.

"I felt like making breakfast," he answered. He turned back to the pan and flipped the food that really looked like an omelette. Nicole went to the barstools and sat. She inhaled deeply through her nose and enjoyed the aroma of whatever the Doctor was cooking.

"D'ya know what day it is today?" Nicole asked.

"Nope. What day do you want it to be?" he replied with a humoristic tone. Nicole shrugged.

"I mean Earth-time, right now. What day?" she asked again. The Doctor flipped the food up on two plates and went over to sit with Nicole. She looked for the cutlery and turned to the Doctor who had somehow magically conjured it out of the thin air. She smiled and began to dig in. It tasted fantastic! Like, an omelette with spices and … cinnamon?  
>The Doctor thought about her question. He looked at his wrist, even though there wasn't a watch.<p>

"Hmm… I think it's the 14th of… February…"

"Oh really? Then, do you know what day it is?"

"You should stop asking so many questions," the Doctor chuckled.

"No, just answer this one," she said.

"Ehh… A Thursday?" he guessed, returning to his food.

"Aha! I know something you don't!" she exclaimed, almost tipping the chair down from sheer excitement. "It's Valentine's Day!" she said.

"Oooh, that human holiday for hearts and cuddling?" the Doctor said, slightly amused. Nicole laughed in reply.

"Well, you could call it that too… But the thing is Doctor, I've never really had a date on Valentines."

"Oh?" the Doctor just said, not really sounded interested.

"Cuz, you know the boys usually thought I was too weird." He didn't answer and Nicole sensed that the Doctor wasn't interested in her topic. Maybe he had a broken heart. Poor guy, she thought. But she probably shouldn't ask him about that.  
>"So, where're we going today?" she asked instead. At this the Doctor's head turned to her and he had an excited look on his face.<p>

"I've got an idea."

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><p>When the Doctor gets all hyped up over something, you would think that it was a bit odd and start to worry, but Nicole was just as excited.<p>

"Why won't you just tell me? Come ooon," she bugged him. The Doctor just shook his head, laughed and pulled a leaver. Nicole held on to the console just in time before the TARDIS started bumping again.

"It's more fun this way!" he shouted over the noise of the TARDIS. And Nicole couldn't help but agree. The anticipation of discovering a new place was amazing. Finally the TARDIS landed with a heaving noise and a groan. Nicole looked expectantly at him. He flashed a big smile and ran towards the door, with Nicole right behind him.

They stepped right out in the middle of it all.

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><p>Nicole looked around. A giant city was towering up before her. Different sorts of cars ran across the roads and small scooters flew over her head. All the buildings were like skyscrapers of all sorts of shapes: a cone, an hourglass, straight and plain as well as curled and coloured. Nicole gaped at it all as she started walking with the Doctor. Then she looked at the people. They were just as random as the buildings. There went a regular green one, another one with six arms and a business suit, a pink child with three eyes holding her three eyed mother in the hand.<p>

"What is this place?" Nicole asked, fascinated.

"This is Platoon 5X01, officially. The inhabitants call it _Pheastopolis_, named after the Greek god of sculptures," he said, looking pleased. "It was originally human settlers who came here and founded a base, and since then it's developed into a city – one of the biggest in the galaxy. The entire planet is now one _big _city, just exploding with all sorts of life forms!"

"That's amazing!" Nicole shouted back. She was practically skipping next to the Doctor "So, where we going?"

"I'm taking you to the special part of the city, but first," he said, running over to something that looked like a crossbreeding of a trashcan and a mailbox. "We need to get something to buy stuff with!" He winked at her. "Wouldn't want to be stealing anything. In fact, if you do that here, you'd be shipped off to a different planet, a prison planet, just for prisoners. They don't want prisoners here, do they?"

"So, it's like England shipping off pickpocketers to Australia, yeah?"

"Exactly. Sort of. Yeah, probably," he said, swinging out his sonic screwdriver. He ran it once over the trash-box or AMT or whatever and it started whizzing. Then it literally spit a ticket out. It really sounded like that. Nicole picked up the ticket from the little tray. She turned it around. It looked like plastic with small silver engravings on it.

"It's fancy, isn't it? I'd think you'd be able to buy something with that, I'm not quite sure how much it actually is though…" the Doctor rambled. Nicole just nodded. She stuck it in her pocket and they continued walking.  
>Finally they reached the special part of town – the markets.<p>

"So much more life. Sure, the city is all cars and stuff but _this_!" he said, looking around. There were small tents all over the place. All the way down the road, tents in all sorts of colours. And tents on top of the tents, like they were small tent-towers.

"Right, so I'm just gonna drop you off here for a while, won't take a sec," he said, turning around.

"Oi, whaddaya mean 'drop me off'?" Nicole asked, grabbing his sleeve. "You're just leaving me here?"

"Oh, you'll be _fine_, they're really quite nice here!" he replied and smiled. Suddenly his face changed like realization hitting him in face and he looked like he had mentally face palmed. "I'm sorry, I've forgotten to give you this," he said. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small phone, and handed it to Nicole. She took it and turned it around, flipping it open.

"A bit two thousand and one, don't ya think? You know - the flipping-bit?"

"Don't be pickish," he replied. "Calls every universe and time zone! My number's already on it. And Elvis'."

And with that he turned on his heels and disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving Nicole alone.

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><p>Of course, travelling with the Doctor didn't always mean he was there. But Nicole didn't mind. It was really beautiful anyways. She walked through the market and looked at all the booths. Some things looked, well, normal, whilst Nicole had no idea what other things were supposed to be. After walking a while a strange sensation reached her. She sniffed the air. Was that… Yes. Food! She hurried through the crowd following her nose. After fighting through the people masses she reached the tents that sold all sorts of food. Whole dishes which smelt deliciously and vegetables that … moved? She took a step closer to the veggie-booth. True enough, the small vegetables, which looked a bit like blue radishes, were squirming. Nicole didn't know if she should be disgusted or fascinated. She walked over to the tents that made food and found a small cupcake-y thing that both smelt and looked good. After paying with her card, she walked over to a couple of benches, sat there and enjoyed her little cake.<p>

"Isn't too bad, right?"

Nicole jumped in her seat, turned around and saw the Doctor.

"Would you like to know what you're eating or… " he said, grinning. Nicole shook her head, food still stuffed in her mouth. She swallowed.

"I'd rather not."

"That's fine too. You enjoying _Pheastopolis_, eh?"

Nicole nodded and finished. She stood up as the Doctor rose from his seat.

"Well, better get a move on."

"Wait, we're in a hurry? Since when?"

He merely winked at her. Then he took her hand and guided her through the crowds. After some time they were back in the TARDIS. Nicole had persuaded him to look in a shop with her, and she bought a hat which never blew off.

"Do you know why? It's because there's a little gravity field inside it, and it searches to whatever it can hold on to – your head," the Doctor explained. Nicole turned her head upside down, and yet the hat still wouldn't fall off.

"Amazing," she said and grinned. The TARDIS rumbled again and Nicole had to regain her balance. "So, where to now?"

"It's a surprise!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But, this planet was a surprise as well! Please, just a hint? You know, if I have to change?"

"No, won't tell you anything! Besides, you'll like it best that way too!"

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><p>They finally half-landed half-crashed and this time, Nicole was the first to the door. She waited for the Doctor and together they pushed the doors open. The first thing Nicole saw was … Black. She looked around. It was night! They walked out of the TARDIS. Nicole's eyes got used to the dim light, and she saw they were out in the nature. Small trees and bushes surrounded them. The Doctor gently took Nicole's hand and led out of through the trees. They walked up on a small hilltop that had a view over a completely ruby red lake. The lighting was a bit brighter here. Nicole noticed that there were reflections in the lake and finally looked up in the skies. The sight that met her was breathtaking. Whirling in the sky was millions of small stars, like stardust, and colours that reminded Nicole of the Northern lights. It was like she saw whole galaxies. There was one big, bright, light blue star that looked like a moon of some sort - except it shone in a completely different way.<p>

"It's… It's beautiful," Nicole breathed, afraid if she talked too loudly, it would break the sight. They sat down on the little hill which had turquoise grass, with a great view over the red lake and the skies.

"This planet is called Nyxiot, because, well, it's always night here," he said, getting Nicole attention.

"A long time ago," the Doctor started, "the whole planet was rich with life; wild as well as civilized. But the sun went into supernova and killed half of the planet. First the side, which faced the sun at the time, was burnt up and secondly there were millions of animals and life forms, which couldn't live without the sun."

They both looked in the sky.

"When the sun became a supernova, the pressure was also so big, it blew up millions of other stars and turned them into … well, stardust. The sun is now a white dwarf, or that's what humans call it. It's a cold star, dead star. Other civilizations call it a Melixhind, which literally means 'Dead Ghost'." Pause "So, the only living things left on the planet now are butterflies, reptiles and geologist."

Nicole laughed.

"Geologists? Seriously?"

She looked at the skies again, getting lost in the beauty of it all. She heard some ruffling from the Doctor and suddenly he poked her. She turned to look at him. He was holding out a bag. Nicole raised an eyebrow in a questioning look. He smiled back.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

Nicole mouth fell open.

"What?" she finally said.

"Not the reaction I had hoped, but it'll do…" he said cheerily. He put the bag down.

"But, but, I thought you didn't care, or listen or …" she looked at him as she trailed off. "I mean, I thought Valentine's Day wasn't your thing. It's just a silly human tradition after all."

"Nah! It's the day of love! One of my favourite pastimes. After hope. Hope is good. Why don't you have a day for hope?" He said.

"Wait, this whole day… Were you taking me out?"

The Doctor laughed.

"I guess you could call it that. It was dedicated to you, yes."

He opened the bag and took out a small box which he opened. Inside there was something that looked distinctively like …

"Sushi?" Nicole asked. It looked like some vegetarian stuff in a roll and small pieces of meat. The Doctor pulled out two sets of chopsticks and grinned.

"Hai. Well, it's sort of. Intergalactic sushi!"

Nicole laughed.

"You're brilliant," she said and grinned at him.

After a while they were finished and sat once again just enjoying the view.

"You know… I've got something for you too…" Nicole said slowly. The Doctor turned to look at her, glee on his face. Nicole gestured him to move closer. He did so. When they were close enough, she leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. The Doctor looked surprised at Nicole, who blushed slightly. They both kept quiet for a while. She turned to look at the stars.

"This is the nicest thing anybody has ever done to me. Ever," she said quietly and smiled. The Doctor nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Just so you're sure Doctor, I don't like you _that_ way. I just thought you'd want a small something in return," she muttered. He smiled.

"I know."

He put his arm around his friend. Nicole snuggled closer to him. She could tell he was debating something with himself. After a while he started to talk.

"I once loved one. I mean, I love all my friends, but she… she was…" he trailed off slowly. Nicole rubbed his back and smiled at him.

"You don't have to tell me Doctor. Really, it's fine if ya don't want to," she reassured him. He nodded silently a smile appearing on his face.

The dust swirled around in the sky and the blue star shone. Nicole thought that big star made the others light up even more.

**The End**

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><p><strong>AN**  
>Nicole really hasn't got a romantic view of the Doctor. She sees him more like a friend, someone she can completely trust.<br>Oh, and Nicole would never ask about the Doctor's private life, because, well, she sees it as private.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE


End file.
